LEGUMINOSAE— LATHYRUS 573 



Attempts to isolate the poison have not succeeded. TeiUeux found an acid that induced 

 typical effects upon rabbits. Bourlier found an active alkaloid in the alcohol-ether ex- 

 tract of the seeds, and poisoned birds with it. Astier isolated a volatile alkaloid by the 

 Stas method, and he thus explains the fact that long-continued heating at a high tem- 

 perature renders the seeds inert. 



20. Cicer L. Chick pea 



Calyx, tube oblique or gibbous posteriorly; lobes nearly equal or the two 

 upper somewhat shorter, conniving; standard ovate or nearly orbicular, nar- 

 rowed into a broad claw ; wings obliquely obovate, free ; keel somewhat broader, 

 incurved, dilated; anthers uniform; ovary sessile 2-8 ovuled; style filiform, in- 

 curved or bent, beardless ; stigmas terminal, legume sessile, ovoid or oblong, 

 turgid, 2-valved; seeds sub-globose or irregularly obovoid; funiculus scarcely 

 dilated, hilum small; cotyledons thick; radicle short, slightly incurved or nearly 

 straight. 



Cicer arietinum L. Chick pea 



Annual herbs, or perennial often glandular-pubescent; leaves pinnate, petiole 

 terminating in a small tuft of spinescent hairs or in an odd leaflet; leaflets 

 dentate or incised without stipels; stipules foliaceous oblique, often dentate or 

 incised; flowers white, blue or violet; solitary pedunculate, or few pedicelled; 

 bracts small; bractlets 0. About 14 species, especially in the eastern Mediter- 

 ranean and in Central Asia — extending westward. 



Distribution. Cultivated in the Rocky Mountains and in the Southwest. 

 Also extensively in Southern Europe and tropical Asia. Considered an excellent 

 food plant. 



Fig. 315. Chick pea (Cicer arietinum). 

 (After Faguet). 



